Fabulous Friday Floss Giveaway

If you read my last post, you know....I'm a floss-hoarder!

I vowed to make one last run to the craft store to purchase the last bits of floss I need to complete the kitting up of 5 HAED charts.

Since I'll be there picking out floss anyway....I thought.....

Why not give some away!?

I'll be drawing for two winners!  I'll send each winner 20 skeins of DMC Cotton floss in the colors of their choice (please read the info below to ensure you get your colors!)

This will be a VERY SHORT giveaway, since I'm going shopping tomorrow!   I'll draw the winning names at 10:00 am EST on 04/14/2012 and will announce the winners shortly thereafter.

To Enter.....Just post a comment!  

You will need to include the following information:
          ~ An email address for me to contact you
          ~A list of the 20 colors that you'd like 
                If you don't list any choices, I'll pick some out for you!

*all color choices need to be the regular cotton floss...I wish I could afford buying 20 skeins of the specialty stuff!

This is open to anyone anywhere, as long as you can receive mail!




-lesli

Hello, My Name is Lesli and I am a New Start Addict

After finishing Coral, I sat down and decided to sort through my piles and piles and piles of FLOSS!

Why do I have piles of floss you ask?

So.... the local craft stores near me often have sales where I can purchase a skein of DMC floss for $0.25-0.28 cents...who can pass that up?  Each time they have a sale, my mind goes crazy thinking, "I must get the floss for such and such chart!"

I had pack-ratted away enough floss for 5 or 6 charts.   I decided to actually sit down and kit some of them up and make sure I had every color I needed, then make one last floss run to fill in any gaps....and then VOW NEVER TO BUY FLOSS AGAIN (unless I needed it for a current chart but ran out). 

What is it they say about the best intentions?  :)

Well....I kitted 4 of them up...and then what happened?  Sam from the HAED BB RAK'd me one of the charts on my wish list!!  Here's a picture of it:

Tarot- The Lovers by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law 

How could I not want to kit this one up!?  I've gone through the rest of the floss I have and made my list for the remaining that I need (which I'll get this weekend)...then I PROMISE....I think I promise?  that I won't get any more floss again, until I finish at least one more chart!

So I leave you with....a picture of my 4 kitted charts and a bag of all the floss I have left for the other 2 charts I decided not to kit up....yet!

Yes...I'm a new start addict and I love it!  :)



-lesli

April WIPocalypse

I only worked on one piece since the last WIPocalypse update....Coral 

And I am delighted to report, she is FINISHED!  :)

Here she is:

 I've washed and pressed her and dropped her off to be framed yesterday.   This is my first official HAED finish.  I was worried I couldn't take on a HAED, but I loved every step of the way.  The confetti was a nightmare in the beginning, but I've come to actually like it and stitching with the metallics is still a little iffy for me, but I'm better at it!

This means I can mark off item # 3 and #5 from my rotation schedule.  I skipped #4 because I couldn't put Coral down until I finished her. 

I've had some wonderful things happen to me since my last update!  Holly at Holly's Crafts Blog awarded me the Liebster Blog Award!  Thank you, Holly!  I'm honored! :)

I also had my name drawn by Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe to win her new sampler chart giveaway.  The sampler is Teach Me to Feel Another's Woes and I love it!  The verse she chose is by Alexander Pope (1688-1744) and her design brings it all together beautifully.  Here is a picture:

Today I've decided to take on the task of sorting through all my DMC floss!  Like a mad-stashing woman, I've gone on various trips to the craft store to buy floss for this chart and that chart, but then leaving it all aside to work on later.  I'm going to officially kit up 5 HAED charts, just to make sure I have all the floss I need, then make a final floss run tomorrow for any missing colors.....and then cut myself off from buying floss for the rest of the year!  (yeah...riiiiighhhhht, lesli!)   :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter holiday weekend and you get to spend some time with family and friends...and of course, some time with needle and floss!


-lesli


Edit:  Ooops!  I lied!  I also did a little work on Wings since the last WIPocalypse update!  I was laser focused on Coral that I completely forgot.  You can see my progress on that piece here

I've Been Spoiled by Ewa!

As I had shared in a previous post, I was one of the lucky names drawn for Ewa's recent giveaway!!

Imagine my giddiness when a package arrived in my mailbox this afternoon!  I think I even ran back inside just to get to open it quicker  :)

Look at all the beautiful items I received:

She baked home-made biscotti!  I put them in a pretty green bowl as if I'm going to serve them, but we all know I'll gobble them up by the end of the day! They are soooo yummy.  I just made a fresh pot of coffee to go with them.

She also included the prettiest card and personal sentiment....so sweet :)

The most incredible part of the gift was her stitching and beadwork!  Here's a close up:

My shadowy picture definitely does not do it justice!  Her work is sitting on top of some divine Architex fabric which she also included.  It matches her stitching perfectly!  Now.....my mind is spinning ideas on what I want to do with them!


I'll have a grin on my face for weeks after this, it's like Christmas in March!..... Thank you Ewa!!


For anyone who hasn't visited her blog....wander on over and check out her great plan to finish one of her current HAED projects before Christmas....I know she can do it, so let's all cheer her on!


-lesli

Quick Crafty Update....before Midnight!

So my Monday has gotten away from me!  Midnight is creeping up on me and I have every intention on posting my weekend update BEFORE Tuesday hits!

I had a WONDERFULLY crafty weekend!!   In addition to crafts...hubby and I went plant/flower shopping and have a front and back garden full of flowers...Spring has officially sprung in the Daniels house!

Now on to bigger and better news.......

I can officially cross off the first two items on my "Rotation Schedule" Check-list!  <woooo!!!>  

My first item was to finish pages 4 and 7 of Coral, and here's how she looks:

Only 4 pages left to go!

 And my second item on my list was to finish page 1 of Wings:

It looks like a big huge block of light gray...but there are actually 3 colors in there!

I'm off and running on my third list item!


I also chipped away on my "yarn stash" by making some cute Spring Kitchen Towels.  I have tons of yarn I need to use up, and I found some kitchen towels I bought last Spring at a sale.  I also hit the craft store this weekend and bought a towel that was on sale for half off (I couldn't resist!).....here's the results of my de-stashing:

My cotton yarn stash

My sale purchases

My Spring towel stash

And here is what I turned those into......

The two made from knitting

The two made from crocheting

 I'm very happy with the outcomes!   Now I have some cute towel sets to give to my sisters for Easter!

That's it!  Just a quick update before Tuesday lands on me!!   Hope everyone had a wonderful start to the week!


-lesli

March TUSAL~Giveaway Winners~Rotation Plan

Even though the title makes my post sound like its going to be long...I'll make it all as short as possible!

First off we have....my March TUSAL picture!

I finally found something to move my ORTs to, from my jelly jar.  I found this vase under my sink, from a beauiful bouquet of tulips my hubby gave me a bit ago.   The vase is HUGE, but that just entices me to stitch more so I can try to get it at least half full by the end of this year!   I'll keep using my jelly jar monthly and transfer them over.

Next up... my LHN giveaway winners!!   Here is a shot of the full list of participants (sorry for the bad picture, I used Paint in a hurry!)

I chose two winners (via random generator) to win the following charts (in this order):

LHN - Strawberry House

LHN Tall Pines

And....the WINNERS are........ (those dots are my drumroll!).......

YAY!   So Strawberry House will be making its way to Joysze at Random Ramblings and Tall Pines will find a home with Carrie at Carrie's Cross Stitch 

(Please email me your mailing addresses!  leslidaniels@gmail.com)  I have a few surprise items to throw into the packages as well!  :)


And finally.....My Rotation Plan!

Thank you to everyone that responded to my last post about how you rotate your work!  I LOVED all the great ideas!!  I thought about it long and hard ...and I decided to be a "deadline rotationer"  (is rotationer even a word?).   I have this "thing" about not putting a piece down until I finshed the page or the section or whatever.....so deadlines seems to be the way to go with me!

Here's the schedule I've come up with so far.  I don't have timelines/dates to each deadline, once I finish the first one on the list, I'll move to the next one.  I did give myself an overall goal date for this list, and if I meet it, I'll make a new list!

1. Page 4 and 7 of Coral (page 7 is just under page 4 with only 3 rows of work, so it made sense to work together)
2. Page 1 of Wings
3. Page 5 and 8 of Coral
4. Page 2 of Cathedral
5. Page 6 and 9 of Coral (FINISHED!)
6. Page 1 of Nature's Beauty
7. Page 1 of Blue Moon
8. Page 1 of Lanterns (new start)
9. Page 1 Moonlight (new start)
10. Page 3 of Cathedral
11. Page 2 of Wings
12. Page 2 of Nature's Beauty (FINISHED!)

My target date to finish this list is July 1st

This gives me around 14 weeks (so about 1 week per line item).  This is a stretch goal and I'll be happy if I get even a little close!


Thanks again for everyone's rotation input and congratulations to the giveaway winners!


Happy Spring!


-lesli